Miami-Dade cannot afford two-thirds of Metrorail projects promised to voters

[skyscraperhighrise]

Originally Posted by FTL Beach Bum

Watch for the Euro and associated European markets to collapse. Nine euro zone countries were just downgraded this week, and still no deal to avoid a Greek default.

Believe me 2012 is the year that america will truly become the next greece.
wait till the war with iran.

[theEmbarcadero]

Is this where we will get the 2/3 of the money we can spend on Metrorail???

Sheesh...talk about off topic...!

[Miami High Rise]

They put up a whole new video just to change one word.

When I saw that the "new" video was the exact same length, I didn't even have to watch it to know what the "change" would be.

See if you can catch what it is:



Old one:

[CF221]

I didn't hear or see what the changed word was... what was it?

[Miami High Rise]

@ 6:40

"In the spring of 2012"

to

"In the summer of 2012"

It was supposed to open in eight days but was silently delayed to some yet unannounced summer date.

[CF221]

^ WOW.......... -.-


Yet another delay at taxpayer's expense.... and the fact that they're trying to silently hide it in a new video makes it even worse.

[CalleOchoGringo]

Relax guys, just about all projects this big get delayed. I'm actually surprised something this big and in our local political system hasn't gotten even more delayed and put even further over budget than normal. I don't think anyone guaranteed it would get done by spring, only that it was the earliest possible completion time.

[Jasonhouse]

Originally Posted by skyscraperhighrise

Believe me 2012 is the year that america will truly become the next greece.
wait till the war with iran.

Please do the world a favor and go lock yourself in a bunker.

[Miami High Rise]

Originally Posted by CalleOchoGringo

Relax guys, just about all projects this big get delayed. I'm actually surprised something this big and in our local political system hasn't gotten even more delayed and put even further over budget than normal. I don't think anyone guaranteed it would get done by spring, only that it was the earliest possible completion time.

Remember, April itself was a delay and the half billion dollar price tag a huge overrun.

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2...ng-disappears/

Miami’s Long-Sought Plans for Metro Extensions Dissolve as Funding Disappears

Yonah Freemark

July 12th, 2010

» Northern extension to Broward County line to be pulled out of federal New Starts process as limited tax revenues hit home. A reconsideration of priorities was in order anyway.

Miami-Dade County voters were promised way too much when they were asked to endorse a half-cent sales tax increase for better transit back in 2002. Not only would they get much more bus service, but also the construction of two new Metrorail extensions, more than doubling the size of the system by 2020.

Suffice it to say that despite electoral approval of the funding source, little has improved. Thanks to a reduction in tax receipts seen across the country and corruption within the transit agency, bus offerings have been cut back to levels not much different than those available around ten years ago. The one Metrorail line that has entered construction, the 2.4-mile AirportLink, has seen its cost double to more than half a billion dollars and its opening date delayed to April 2012.

Miami’s first and only Metrorail corridor opened in 1984 and now includes 22 miles of service to about 70,000 daily riders.

After a year of confusion about the status of the full “Orange Line,” which would have eventually included links west to Florida International University and north to the Broward County line, Miami-Dade County’s manager has announced that he will remove the project from the federal New Starts applicant pool. The County has been unable in recent years to convince Washington of the merits of the project, thanks both to difficulties assuring local support for transit operations and low projected ridership numbers; it has repeatedly received medium-low ratings from the Federal Transit Administration, making it unable to qualify for aid. In addition, the county’s sales tax revenues have been too low to even support a “light” bus rapid transit program along the NW 27th Avenue corridor where trains were supposed to go.

The North extension, also known as Orange Line Phase II, would have cost $1.6 billion and carry about 23,000 daily riders along 9.5 miles of tracks, a miserable investment-to-return ratio. The even more expensive 10.6-mile East-West line has been assumed to be dead for years.

This is bad, albeit unsurprising, news for Miami, which has been particularly hard hit by the recession. And it’s not alone: Other cities, including Dallas and Charlotte, are suffering similar fates. Nonetheless, the fact that Miami now must reevaluate both its transit funding system and its future priorities could lead to better thinking about cost-effective ways to advance the future of the city’s public transportation. It could also force local leaders to push for more sustainable funding.

The problem with Miami’s decision-making when it developed the Orange Line program ten years ago was that it envisioned very expensive metro service to areas that do not have the passenger demand for much more than upgraded buses. The low ridership estimates for the North corridor attest to the fact that areas to which extensions would run are of relatively low densities, with few big user generators along the route. Meanwhile, potentially more attractive routes through the county’s most populated areas, including along the waterfront and to places like Miami Beach and Little Havana, were simply not considered priorities by a board skewed towards the needs of the county’s north and west sides.

Moreover, the project was pursued without serious thinking as to how the system would work in the long term. Because both extensions would have been from sections of the existing system north of downtown, the Metrorail line would have become seriously unbalanced, with far more service needed to northern destinations than to areas south of downtown, causing operational difficulties. Even the first section to the airport, a one-station spur, will produce some difficulties, since Miami doesn’t have the funds to increase service dramatically and trains already only run every seven to eight minutes at rush hour and every 30 minutes on weekends. How attractive can an airport link be to customers who are forced to wait more than half an hour for a train?

The county does not have the funds to ponder major transportation projects at the moment, though it could focus on simple and cheap bus improvements like installing signal priority at intersections, improving customer information displays, and marking off dedicated lanes. These require no significant spending, just good management. Does Miami-Dade have what it takes?

Once the economy recovers and county board members wake up to the benefits of increased spending on public transportation, though, there should be a countywide rethink about the best way to use varying modes of transit. In the past, I’ve suggested that routes into Midtown and Miami Beach likely could garner enough passengers to merit the installation of cheap street-running light rail (though probably not Metrorail). In other areas, bus rapid transit is sufficient. But until the county’s back on its financial feet, nothing is going to be built.

[Bobdreamz]

^ Was there a point in posting a nearly two year old article? Just asking because in the old video it does state that the cost was going to be a half-billion dollars & I think those were the initial estimates for the project.
By the way thanks for posting the videos.

[CalleOchoGringo]

I also remember hearing that it was going to cost about half a bil as well. But I don't doubt there will be SOME overrun. This is government after all.


Anyway, does anyone know if they have given a hard date for completion yet, or still no?

[Miami High Rise]

Originally Posted by CalleOchoGringo

I also remember hearing that it was going to cost about half a bil as well. But I don't doubt there will be SOME overrun. This is government after all.


Anyway, does anyone know if they have given a hard date for completion yet, or still no?

Late summer:

http://www.local10.com/news/New-Metr...4/-/yvcn5tz/-/

By the end of the summer...

"This is going to give people choices," said Albert Hernandez with Miami Dade Transit.

Hernandez gave Local 10's Sasha Andrade an exclusive look at the Miami Intermodal Station.

"This is the end or the terminal station for a 2 1/2 mile stretch of our Metrorail system," he said.

Once construction is completed this summer, you will be able to take the existing Metrorail from Dadeland, through downtown, and all the way to the Miami International airport.

"We'll have two lines now," Hernandez said. "The green line which provides service to the Palmetto, and the orange line which will provide service to the airport."

Frequent flyer Joe Cuzan doesn't usually take mass transit, but he's sold on spending a couple of dollars to get to MIA and a couple of dollars to leave.

"If it's practical and it works, I'll use it," he said.

In fact, county officials believe the link to the airport will [increase] ridership by about 7,000 or 8,000 people per day. They say the new stretch of rail launches our 30-year-old system into the future.

Seems like a modest estimate for all the work and cost.

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by Miami High Rise

Seems like a modest estimate for all the work and cost.

It's a reasonable estimate, imo (at least better than some outlandish one based on crazy world projections).

Don't forget part of the reason MDTA has been slammed in Washington and denied funding is because of a LONG history of concocting absolutely ludicrous ridership projections, going all the way back 35 years ago when they were telling the feds the original line would be handling 250,000 daily riders. When they tossed out equally silly numbers for the North extension, enough was enough (and a big part of the reason it never got funded).

Not sure if MDTA has their house in order, but realistic projections would be a good start. Washington isn't playing that game with them anymore.

(I don't doubt this was the case elsewhere, too...just saying it was extreme with our agency and those days are over)

[Miami High Rise]

This website may be just slightly out of date:

http://northamerica.atkinsglobal.com...ami-metro-rail

Atkins was a partner in the Kaiser joint venture, serving Miami-Dade County as general architectural and engineering consultant for the METRORAIL rapid transit system. The first stage of the system was a 20.5-mile aerial and at-grade, fixed guideway, heavy rail system with 20 stations. The system will ultimately be 50 miles in length bringing direct rail or feeder bus service to virtually all of Miami-Dade County's 1.5 million residents.

And this is the background image

image hosted on flickr

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by Miami High Rise

This website may be just slightly out of date:

Just a tad or two, more like two-and-a-half tads, if a tad is a decade (at least the photo is).

[dave8721]

Can't remember if this is the first actual date I have seen yet:

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflor...a-in-july.html

Metrorail to connect to MIA in July

South Florida Business Journal
Date: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 3:05pm EDT

Miami Dade Transit has announced that the Miami International Airport Metrorail station will open for rail service on July 28.

The station at 3800 N.W. 25th St. is located at the Miami Intermodal Center, which is adjacent to the airport and includes the MIA Mover, rental car center, and future transportation hub Miami Central Station. Passengers will be able to take the Metrorail’s Orange Line, which will run from the Dadeland South station to MIA, to the airport station and then travel on the 1.25-mile elevated MIA Mover to access the airport terminal.
On July 22, seven Metrobus routes currently serving the MIA terminal will be realigned to serve the new airport Metrorail station. The routes are the 7, 37, 42, 57, J, 150 Airport Flyer and 238 East-West Connection.
In addition, Metrorail service will double in frequency between the Dadeland South station and Earlington Heights station.

[xerxesjc28]

Originally Posted by dave8721

Can't remember if this is the first actual date I have seen yet:

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflor...a-in-july.html

Sweet, I wanna be there on the first day to ride the train to the station. Also, the doubling in frequency between Dadeland South station and Earlington Heights station is awesome.

[CalleOchoGringo]

So who's gonna ride tomorrow on the one-third of metrorail projects promised to voters that Miami-Dade COULD afford?








(far less than one-thrid actually ...sadly)

[xerxesjc28]

I don't know I am going to ride it, but I do want to go to the opening ceremony for the station.